David Stewart is a London-based advertising and fine art photographer and director. We asked him a few questions about his new fine art series Teenage Pre-occupation, photographing punk bands, and creating projects that are both humorous and timeless.

You started out photographing punk bands such as The Clash and The Ramones in the 1970’s/80’s.  Can you talk a bit about this time in London?
“In the late 70’s I was studying civil engineering in Liverpool and finding it very dull. I had always taken photographs, but it was not until I started taking photographs of bands playing in local venues in Liverpool and the North of England that I realized how much I enjoyed it. It was during the time of punk, and the bands often played in smaller venues; this made it easier to get close when photographing the bands. I was shooting on 35mm transparency film and the results were mixed. I recently scanned some of these images for archiving purposes. At some point they may be worth showing.

“Due to this interest, I decided to leave the civil engineering course and start a foundation course in Art and Design. This led onto doing a photography course for three years.”

I read that you still shoot all of your projects with a large format camera (8×10), which is pretty rare for an advertising photographer.  Why do you choose to stick with film?
“My commissioned work is now all shot digitally due to time constraints and clients/agencies needing to see what they are getting instantly. This means they can change their minds right up to the final moment.

“I do still shoot all of my personal projects on film with a large format camera (8×10). This is the way I learnt and the way I worked on commissions pre-digital. It involves thinking more about what you are shooting and trusting your instincts.

“One of the reasons I have stuck with film for my personal projects is that I would hope to exhibit all this work at some point (large scale). There are still problems with digital files which need post production to rectify.

“Less skill and thought are required when you shoot digitally, it makes people very lazy. The whole process of shooting with a large format camera and film forces you to approach the shoot in a different way. This has become part of the reason my work looks like it does.”

Your Cabbage photo series and accompanying short film was made in 1995, however it looks as though it could have been done today.  Is creating work that is timeless something that you consciously think about?  And do you think shooting with film gives your images more of a timeless quality?
“It is not a conscious decision to create timeless work, however I think my methods of shooting on large format add to the timeless quality. I am usually trying to capture what I see and make it as real as possible.

“Photographers often look for a treatment on top of the image to hide the lack of content. If you base your work on something you have discovered in Photoshop, it’s likely many others have discovered it too. In my mind It should not be a ‘fix it later’ process.”

Your work is clever, offbeat and often hilarious.  Can you talk about your process for coming up with ideas and also the elimating/editing process. When you know an idea is truly good and how do you know when to scrap it?
“On commissioned work the ideas come from the creatives and it is just the way you tell the story that gives the work its look. The humour can be turned up or down with decisions about casting, performance and styling.

“The best commissions are always when the humour is more subtle. Getting commissions with good ideas in the current climate is hard to come by. When one does come along, it is easy to spot as there is so much mediocre work out there.

“In the ‘Thrice Removed‘ work the ideas came from things I had seen and remembered. The words that accompany the images gives a little insight into the process. In the majority of my recent work I am just presenting real situations from my point of view.

‘With ideas on personal work, I tend to just carry on and shoot the thoughts I have. When curating a project/book, it is at this point certain images are rejected, sometimes forcing me to shoot more.”

Looking through your portfolio, it’s sometimes difficult to tell the difference between your personal work and your commissions.  Do you tend to approach them differently?
“Initially there is a similar approach to commissions and personal work, but with commissions you can find yourself becoming more of a manager of clients’ demands which can soon take the first intention off track. There are too many people involved in making decisions on commissioned work. Sometimes the reason you have been chosen for the job is forgotten and so what you end up with becomes unrelated to your portfolio.

“In the current climate, advertising photography is treated by clients as something they just need to fill a space with and they forget that it is communication which can entertain, provoke and deliver a message at the same time.

“With personal work it is totally your own decisions throughout the process. Interestingly it is still the personal work which attracts the most attention from agencies/clients. It is past commissioned work that makes them feel safe about using you for their project.”

One of the photographs from your new series, Teenage Pre-occuption, which was displayed in The National Portrait Gallery in 2011, materialized after your daughter mentioned a haircutting ritual at her school.   Would you say that the inspiration for this series came from your kids and their friends?
“Yes. Being surrounded by teenagers (my sons, daughter and all their friends), have made me aware of some interesting things about them; these things may be of the time and current culture. I thought it was worth documenting from my perspective.

“In ‘Thrice Removed’ there was an image called ‘Five Girls, four cartons, three cups’ and the reaction to this image got me thinking about my next project which became ‘Teenage Pre-occupation’.

Teenage Preoccupation is meant to be released in book form early next year.  Anything exciting planned for the release party?
“The book is currently in the design stage and now has been set for a launch in March 2013. There will be things going on at the release party including themes taken from the images. With the subject being teenagers, there is plenty of ideas floating around.”

Any other projects in the works we can look forward to seeing soon?
“I always have other works going on alongside current projects, some of which develop into bigger things. I find it good to learn from each project and the reaction to the work is what informs the next thing. Photographing people is what interests me and I am always looking for the next group I can poke fun at.

“With the developments in technology, it has now become more accessible to shoot moving material at the same time as stills. The moving versions of the stills can be used effectively on the internet; this has already been the case on several commissions. In ‘Teenage Pre-occupation’ there are already some moving pieces, as I am sure there will be in all future projects.

“When launching a book, the moving can be useful for promotional purposes in the form of a trailer or invitation. Having the option to involve moving images on the internet enables me to get my work across to a wider audience. The internet seems more suited to moving imagery, as a gallery would be for displaying large scale prints.”

Christian Schmidt was born 1970 in Goettingen, Germany. After finishing school and assisting for almost 10 years, he started working as a professional photographer in 1999.

Today, Schmidt shoots ad campaigns for agencies around the world. He has won over 100 awards for his work and exhibits his personal landscape photographs in galleries internationally. He lives with his wife and two daughters in Stuttgart, Germany.

You strike me as someone who has a very deep understanding of light in the natural world. Can you tell us a little bit about your process? How do you hunt down these unbelievable lighting situations? How much is luck and how much is planning?
“It is a little bit of both. Sometimes, especially for an assignment or a very specific lighting situation, I wait for the perfect light. I also refer to the compass and calculate the sun direction before I get to the location.

“I figure out the best shooting time on a prep or location-check day . But of course, the weather and clouds are unpredictable. And sometimes you just have these very beautiful special moments that you can’t really plan, which makes photography so beautiful and exciting.”

What type of aids do you use when on location? How useful are tools like GPS, Google Earth, Sun Path etc.? How different was it when you started shooting?
“When I started around 15 years ago it was quite different. Everything was still shot on film, no web for research or scouting online. Photoshop was not really around.

“Today, sunPATH or iPhone Apps such as Sun Seeker make things much easier. However, I still prefer using the Suunto Clinometer Compass, and I always try to check the light and angle a day before the shoot. GPS is a must have and Google Earth is great for a general overview of the area. I use it quite often for specific landscapes such as roads, coastlines or airports.”

Do you feel like the campaigns you shoot are specifically designed arund your photographic style – or do you modify your style to adapt to the campaign?
“I adapt and transform a bit for each project. I think agencies and clients contact me because they believe my style works with the idea and layout that they have in mind for the campaign. But of course each project is different.

“The tilt-shift campaign for the Deutsche Telekom was meant to look artificial, like a small toy train scene that someone created. On the other hand, for the Allianz People campaign, the client wanted something that looked editorial, almost like there is no retouching involved at all.”

I see other art forms like painting, illustration and architecture influencing your work. Can you touch on some of your sources of inspiration?
“I’m inspired by atmosphere and simplicity found in paintings and the graphic sensibility found in architecture. Especially in my personal projects, I strive to capture the ‘atmosphere’ of a place.’

“Another big inspiration for me is time. Taking a few days off and ‘unplugging’ always gives me inspiration, new energy and passion for what I do.”

Your landscape work can be looked at as both commercial and fine art and you show both in the same portfolio. How do you think this sets you apart from other photographers working in this same field?
“For me it doesn’t really matter if it is an assignment or a personal project. I always try to create great work and something which is touching and conveys a special feeling.”

This post was contributed by photographer Peter Andrew

If you’re a photographer, you can now promote your new series, website, gallery show, recent assignment, etc. on Feature Shoot for an affordable price. Find out about becoming a Spotlight Photographer here.

‘Stay Cool is a collection of an entire summer’s worth of images. The idea behind it was not simply to document subjects or happenings but to document the essence of an experience, to try and capture the feelings of youth and freedom and love and summertime and Los Angeles. I think often times the trap of documentary photography is in the waiting. We wait for our subject matter to provide for us, I know I fell into that trap in much of my shooting over this past decade. With this work I felt like there was an opportunity for me to transcend beyond a level of waiting into a level of stimulation, a level of participation, in creating the experiences or creating the jumping off point for the experiences and then capturing the magic that unfolds. In that respect this book and what it means to me has a lot less to do with photography and a lot more to do with life – initiate unique experiences and pursue the magic that results.’

R J Shaughnessy is a Los Angeles based editorial and advertising photographer represented by Giant Artists. This work is from his latest series, Stay Cool, shot around Los Angeles.

John Fulton was recently named a Luerzer’s Archive Top 200 Advertising Photographer Worldwide, and his work has been recognized globally by the likes of Hasselblad Masters, Ads of the World, Canon, “Lucies” (The Int’l Photography Awards), The Addy’s, and Prix de la Photographie Paris, among others. He is based in Savannah, Georgia and represented by Visu Artists and Wonderful Machine.

Your work encompasses a range of things from portraits to advertising work to editorial images – how did you get started, and is there a genre you prefer working in most?
‘I went to photography school in Santa Barbara, California. After graduation, I was hired at a retouching house in San Francisco, worked on some big campaigns, and learned how the back and forth with art directors is conducted successfully. While in SF, I also worked with Jim Erickson, Erik Almas, and a bunch of other great people. The skills and business acumen that I learned during that time had a big influence on me.

‘I’m inspired and interested in a lot of different things, but I specialize in photographing people, environments, and concepts whether personal or commercial. I shoot projects outside of those categories but have other venues and outlets for that kind of work. I would get bored shooting the same things all the time. Photography is a great tool that way – it can applied in so many ways.’

You recently completed a series of extreme runners after a race – can you talk a bit about these images?
‘From time to time I take on editorial assignments from a small magazine here in Savannah for fun and to stay fresh. They approached me about shooting something they called “extreme running”. This sport basically entails athletes swimming through mud pits and running straight through the swamp. It sounded intriguing. When I arrived on location, the owner of the course explained that it was required that his course be inspected by an alligator expert and steps had to be taken to ensure that an athlete doesn’t find him or herself face to face with a ten footer in the middle of a race. “It’s 99% gator free!”, the owner said with a big smile and no sense of sarcasm in his voice. I tried not to think about that 1% when I was up to my chest in the swamp shooting.

‘Originally, I’d thought that the best images would be the action on the course. It was a great experience shooting the actual race but when it came time to edit, it was these portraits that I found to be the most engaging. I was very happy with the final series and they’ve been well-received by ad agencies.’

A lot of your advertising and creative work has a rather unique and somewhat playful feel. How do you think digital editing and manipulation affects the images you produce?
‘Post production plays a role in most of my work. When capturing everything in camera isn’t possible due to budget or logistical constraints, there’s often some compositing involved. At minimum, I will massage the tones and colors to see what palette I think is most affective for the environment. I’m also visually excited by atmosphere, dust, fog, smoke, etc. I usually weave a little atmosphere into the image even if it’s subtle. To me, post production is just another tool to help make the images in my head come alive in a tangible form. It feels like a combination of photography and painting which I really enjoy.’

Do you find that you approach a project differently if it’s shot on location rather than in a studio environment?
‘Even with a scout, location work always has many potentially uncontrollable elements involved compared to the studio in my experience. Inclement weather, changing light, random people upset that you get to shut part of their street down despite your permit, there’s always unexpected challenges. Thinking on your feet is a prerequisite for location work. Having a great producer who helps put out fires behind the scenes really helps as well.

‘Last year, while planning a shoot in a neighborhood, some random person took it upon themselves to dial up and leave nasty messages about my production to the agency, their parent agency, and the client. It turned out the guy didn’t even live in the neighborhood. My producer took care of the problem over the course of several days, but it could have gone badly and that was even before the shoot started.

‘To answer the original question, when planning a location shoot I’m of the mind that you can’t over think or over plan the production but you have to be ready for when things change. My studio work is much more straight forward so generally, all I need is to have a vision for what the final work will look like and know how to get it there.’

Your image of the hula girl on the dashboard for ‘Eaton’ has been hugely successful – where did the idea for that shoot originate?
‘The elderly hula girl was a great project. It was concepted by the agency (Brunner) who I’ve worked with for several years. It’s been so successful for the client, that they’ve had real elderly hula dolls fabricated in China for their promotion and branding.’

This post was contributed by Ariel Body.

This work is from a campaign for chinaware brand Mateus. The set designer, Anton Thorsson, and I got free rein to create the concept for the campaign. The environments are all made of paper and we wanted to create a dreamlike feeling to them which we enhanced by using smoke as fog.

Swedish still life and advertising photographer Niklas Alm started exploring the world of photography as a kid in his parents darkroom. Since 2001, he has been working with both editorial and advertising commissions; creating interesting environments and images with a character of their own.

Oli Kellett is a London-based photographer who earned his degree from St. Martins Art College. He worked at several London ad agencies as an art director before leaving in 2008 to pursue photography full time. His recent project is entitled ‘Team Vodkovia’ and features a digitally-designed team of olympic hopefuls from the fictitious country of Vodkovia.

What was your vision and inspiration behind the Team Vodkovia series?
‘The idea for “Team Vodkovia” started in the spring of 2011 when Olympic fever was really beginning over here in London. I thought it would be good to get involved and would be fun to invent some athletes who were specifically matched to the event they would participate in. Brave New World Style.’

You worked closely with retouchers, writers, designers, etc. to create the whole visual story. Can you talk a little about that process?
‘We started thinking about athletes and events and I was sending ideas through to Kai, a retoucher at The Operators, who was letting me know what was possible.

‘Eventually we settled on eight athletes and spent a long weekend shooting them in a studio in North London. After the shoot, The Operators started the retouching job which meant a lot of arms and legs of different bodies stitched onto new ones.

‘At about this point I thought about how I could get the images out to creatives and Art Buyers and get the series a bit of PR. I thought to create a “Top Trump” themed mailer and I started brainstorming fictitious background information for each athlete.

‘When the images were almost ready, I got in touch with a couple of graphic designers I knew and a writer. It was important that I had the images nearly done so I could get them excited about the idea. Luckily they liked it and we all agreed it had the potential to go bigger; it could be an entire country, and this was their first Olympic games. Three months later “Team Vodkovia” was born and is ready to take on the world.

‘Writing and design was done by Konstantinos Kanellopoulos, and the website was designed by Kostja Paschalidis. There is also a poster which is going to be sent out to advertise the country.’

What has the feedback been like so far?
‘I was asked to do a presentation of my work in December so I took that as a good opportunity to launch “Team Vodkovia”. I got an actor to play the President of Vodkovia. I dressed him up and he gave a rousing and enthusiastic speech introducing each of the athletes and their background. I don’t think anyone was expecting it but I think it went down well.’

How do envision it evolving as it gets closer to the Olympics?
‘What I would love is for some print and online magazines which are not art/photography related to run the images. It would be great if the project could cross over into the ‘real’ sports world as a bit of fun. That’s when I will consider the project to be a success.’

The whole idea of the series is really quirky – from the images themselves to the online shop to physically designing an entire country – is there some kind of message or statement you’re trying to make through the images and intricacy of the project as a whole?
‘Well the project didn’t start off this big. It was originally just a sketch of a guy with long legs riding a bike, but has grown quite naturally along the way. There is no message as such, just meant to be a bit of entertainment. I feel people remember ‘the idea’ more than the images (in most photography), so the more work I can put into ‘the idea’, like the biographies and shop, I hope will result in more people remembering the project.’

This post was contributed by Ariel Body.

Rob Steel is a London based commercial photographer with a skewed view of the world. Some of his clients include Swatch, American Express, Playstation 2 and Kellogg’s. He is represented by Metcalfe Lancaster in London.